1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a lid of a container, in particular a beverage can, with a breakout portion, which is formed in the lid plate and can be broken out by means of an opener tab, so that an access opening to the contents of the container is produced, and with a closure attachment on the opener tab, with which the access opening can optionally be re-closed.
The lid plate and the opener tab are respectively produced in a shaping manner from a thin, profiled plate material by a primary forming technique, or in particular by a re-forming technique, by punching and/or deep-drawing. The opener tab and/or the lid plate is produced from a plastics material, which is possibly fiber-reinforced, or—preferably—from a metal sheet material, in particular from an aluminum alloy or iron alloy.
A lid according to the invention can be provided on containers for receiving a flowable substance, such as a powdered or granular substance, for example coffee powder or cocoa powder, powdered soup or other prepared powder or granules for domestic use, or in particular a liquid, which may also contain solids, for example a liquid for drinking, a liquid broth or soup, an oil and the like. A lid according to the invention may also be intended for other liquid or powder containers, which contain for example a liquid, powdered or granular cleaning agent or treating agent or the like.
Such lids of a beverage can or a powder container with a breakout portion in the lid plate, which is at least partly bounded by a predetermined breaking line, and an opener tab, which is pivotably fastened, by means of a fastening tongue that can be bent about its foot, next to the breakout portion on the lid plate at a fastening stud, in particular in the form of a hollow rivet or solid rivet, are widely known. The fastening tongue is arranged in a cutout of the opener tab between a gripping portion and a pressing portion of the opener tab and, in the same way as the rim portion of the breakout portion alongside the fastening stud and therefore the opening produced by breaking it out, ends with its foot directly at the head of the fastening stud. By lifting the gripping portion in the opener pivoted position of the opener tab, its pressing portion protruding over the breakout portion is swung downward about the foot of the fastening tongue, so that the breakout portion is pressed down and, as a result, is broken out along the predetermined breaking line. Usually, the broken-out portion, which remains hanging from the rim of the opening produced at a point of interruption of the predetermined breaking line, is then swung further under the lid plate by further swinging up of the opener tab, by the pressing portion of the latter.
2. Description of Related Art
Various devices to make it possible for the broken-out opening in the lid of a beverage can to be re-closed after opening are known, for example from WO 98/12118 A2. In the cited known beverage can, between the opener gripping tab and the lid plate fixed to the beverage can there is provided an additional closure plate, which is pivotably fastened with the aid of a peripheral bulge in a peripheral groove formed in the lid plate and has an opening which corresponds to the opening broken out from the lid plate. By pivoting of the closure plate, possibly together with the opener tab, the closure plate opening can be pivoted away from the opening in the lid plate and, as a result, the latter can be re-closed.
According to WO 99/65780 A1, provided as a replacement for the customary opener tab is a specially designed plastics body, which serves for opening a drinking opening by breaking out a breakout portion of the lid plate and at the same time for renewed closing of this drinking opening. The plastics body is fastened to the lid plate in such a way that it can be swung and pivoted and elastically deflected with the aid of a flexibly deformable stud, which is riveted onto the lid plate and has, as a head, an axial web that extends transversely and protrudes on both sides, in order that the plastics body can be moved over the breakout portion and swung about the axial web for breaking out the breakout portion, and the opening produced as a result can be re-closed with the aid of a closure attachment after pivoting of the plastics body by 180°. A sliding groove for the axial web may be provided in the plastics body, in order that, for its swinging movement, the plastics body can be additionally displaced into a position suitable for the breaking out of the breakout portion.
According to DE 89 11 286 U1, on the other hand, the opener tab pivotably fastened at a rivet has a depression on its gripping portion, so that on the underside of the gripping portion facing the lid plate there is formed a closure attachment which protrudes at an angle from a wide covering collar of the gripping portion. The opener tab consists of spring plate and the closure attachment is curved in an arcuately convex manner and is larger at the covering collar than the broken-out opening, so that, in an opener pivoted position, the closure attachment is resiliently pressed with its convexity into a receiving hollow in the lid plate and, after the pivoting of the opener tab about the fastening stud into a closure pivoted position, is resiliently pressed with its convexity onto the bounding edge of the opening, in order to re-close the opening. In the opener pivoted position and in the closure pivoted position, the covering collar protrudes obliquely upward above the lid plate at a distance above the axially protruding rim of the lid. The opener tab has a semicircular wide fastening tongue, which as a result is intended to be resiliently deflectable about a bending line perpendicularly crossing the rivet axis. The opener tab must be prestressed relatively strongly, in order that, with the only slight deflection of the opener tab about the bending line, a sufficiently large spring force is present at the foot of the fastening tongue to press the convexly curved closure attachment against the bounding edge of the opening. The strong prestressing of the opener tab has the effect on the other hand that the fastening stud of the opener tab is subjected to very strong loading, which can cause the fastening stud to be broken out from the thin lid plate if, when opening the lid, the breakout portion is to be pressed down with great force until breaking out from the lid plate occurs.
In the case of other known constructions (for example EP 0 558 442 A1), therefore, a separate closure shoe is pushed onto the gripping portion of the opener tab, which shoe is pivotably guided on the rim of the can and pivoted over the opening by pivoting the opener tab about the fastening stud, so that the closure shoe rests on the bounding rim of the opening in a sealing manner.